Indeed, from whom or what are rights derived?
Need we pin them on some deity,
Dependent for them on some fragile faith?
Even so, we cannot do without them,
Predisposed to fear and rage and greed.
Embrace them, then, however they arrived,
Nature's scaffold for morality,
Destined to the power of kings replace,
Enduring truths so salient none should doubt them,
Nor more nor less than what the heart decreed.
Crafted, then, by love, to love ascribed,
Each right is more than mere legality,
Dependent on a purely human grace,
As those who love must keep their bliss about them,
Yielding self to a more urgent need.
Copyright by Nicholas Gordon. Free for personal or non-commercial use.
Audio and Video Music: Resolution. By Wayne Jones. Music free to use at YouTube.
